2019 four-star cornerback Jalen Perry (Dacula, GA) committed to Michigan over South Carolina on Saturday, giving the Wolverines their second top target at the cornerback position this cycle from the state of Georgia.

Perry was a Georgia commit until a month or two ago, when Georgia gave him the "we like you as a safety" talk and he decided to peace out. South Carolina was the other major contender in the aftermath of his decommitment but Auburn and Florida both hosted him on officials and seemed to have committable offers out.

Perry is Michigan's 26th commitment at the moment, but the writing appears to be on the wall with TN RB Eric Gray after he didn't come up for either the Penn State or Indiana games.

There's been a bit of a backlog when it comes to hello posts since [gestures to season] and this will get added to it; I'll knock those out in December.

Indiana was defeated. It was annoying, as per usual. The method was different this time.

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It's here, again. Football Armageddon. The last time I called a game Football Armageddon it was 12 years ago, when Michigan and Ohio State were both undefeated. Michigan ripped off a slick touchdown drive to start things off, and in the Ohio State student section I thought to myself "we're a third of the way home."

This was incorrect. Michigan's defense played three inside linebackers the whole game against Troy Smith, gave up 500 yards and 42 points, and blew an opportunity to get the ball back when Shawn Crable hit Smith in the helmet on a scramble. The 2006 defense featured Alan Branch, Lamarr Woodley, Leon Hall, David Harris, four guys with decade-long NFL careers. They whooped up on everyone, but within were the seeds of the past decade of Michigan football. Michigan had one cornerback: Hall. Morgan Trent couldn't change direction with a sail and a headwind, and when the starters got pulled against Ball State two weeks prior the Cardinals mounted a comeback that ended in Michigan's redzone down only 8.

The two corners who came in against Ball State were Chris Richards, the defensive coordinator's godson, and Johnny Sears, a kid from Fresno who'd never played a varsity game when Michigan offered him. They saw him at practice. (Practice! We're talking about practice!) Eight months later Michigan would field Sears as a starter in The Horror, in which a cut-rate Troy Smith exploited the same tactical naivete Smith had to hand Michigan the worst upset of all time.

Football Armageddon really was Armageddon for Michigan, not because of anything Ohio State did to them in that one game but because they'd fallen behind the curve out of their own arrogance. Michigan's recruiting was increasingly lazy, dependent on guys who bothered to come to camp and random, uninformed guesses about players based on not enough scouting. They'd get about half a class of well-regarded and then pluck random dudes out of the ether for the rest. They'd singularly failed to adapt to the prevalence of the spread across college football, kicking off the Ohio State dominance that extends to the modern day.

When Lloyd Carr retired he asked the athletic director to interview the two sturdiest branches on his coaching tree: his coordinators. One, Ron English, had never been a head coach and was the architect of the Horror. The other, Mike DeBord, was 12-34 at Central Michigan before quitting because he wasn't a head coach. These were the options to keep it in the family.

2006 Michigan was Indiana Jones on a rope bridge. Ohio State was the guy with the machete leering from the safety of land, but it didn't create the situation.

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Incredibly, improbably, amazingly: Ohio State looks like it might be on a bridge of its own devising. Michigan's culture caught up to them in a slow-motion avalanche that took half a decade. OSU's got blown up in a week by Brett McMurphy and Urban Meyer's callous disregard for anything but winning.

Since Zach Smith was exposed, Ohio State's house has morphed from bricks to cards. Every week (except Michigan State) brings a new sordid depth to their defensive issues. With JT Barrett off to pick up YAC in the Estonian league, the offense frequently fails to convert buckets of yards into points. There was a fourth and goal wide receiver screen against Purdue. Not incidentally, a 5-6 Purdue team that's going into the Bucket game looking for a bowl berth boatraced OSU 49-20.

The nature of the series with Michigan has already changed in the post-Durkin landscape. Michigan lost by a literal inch the last time they were in Columbus despite Wilton Speight fumbling on the goal line and throwing two miserable interceptions. Last's game was 21 Michigan players outplaying the opposition and the third-string quarterback tossing up a 14.3 QBR. This isn't Michigan scrapping and clawing because "throw the records out" and we'll go for two at the end of the game because we know what's what. It's Michigan getting hit by a red shell rounding the last corner.

They're there. They're good enough. They're legitimately elite by any metric you want to poke. Now they just have to do the damn thing. The consequences of failure do not bear thinking about. It's armageddon, again. Ohio State is a rope over an abyss. Sharpen your knives.

AWARDS

[Fuller]

you're the man now, dog

#1 Devin Bush. Michigan lined him up next to Gary for a blitz and that seemed unfair and also please continue doing that forever. Twelve tackles, one of them to destroy a fake punt, and one critical fourth down PBU. Run issues were mostly things he was trying to mitigate and not things that could be plausibly put on him. Update: still good.

#2 Shea Patterson. Another game of almost ten yards an attempt. There were some hiccups, but the interception was an open guy on an RPO and it sailed because he got clobbered. The Gentry throw in the endzone… not so much. But the one after escaping the pocket, yeah buddy. Also chipped in 68 yards rushing. Which is a lot of yards.

Honorable mention: Zach Gentry had two big receptions and got interfered with twice… but maybe probably should have grabbed that ball in the endzone. Higdon had a workmanlike performance with some key broken tackles on short stuff.

Who's Got It Better Than Us(?) Of The Week

Nick Eubanks scores his first touchdown at Michigan. An important moment in the game, sure. But his reaction afterward was a prayer to his late mom.

Honorable mention: Post-game news about Edwards and Winovich is positive. Moody hits a field goal X6. Rashan Gary stops Indiana's last drive before it starts.

​MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

Berkeley Edwards suffers the scariest injury in Michigan Stadium in living memory after a cheap targeting hit on a kickoff return. Edwards is probably going to be fine, per Braylon, and he's tweeting, so… that's a mixed blessing. But mostly good!

Honorable mention: Chase Winovich is knocked out after a different cheap shot and is maybe unavailable for next week. The end of half debacle.

1. The Offense

starts at 1:00

IU’s dirty play: The O’Neill crew has got to go! Shea came down a little from his Rutgers game level, Michigan did NOT want to run him but had to due to circumstances. Running game didn’t get big plays, protection issues resurfaced with Steuber. Showed some new things, left a lot in the bag.

2. The Defense

starts at 32:20

The DTs are, after all, just guys. DeBord brings out the tempo and gets his 17 first half points, then gets 3 after the adjustment. The adjustment: another guy in the box. Ramsey runs were all different but annoying events. He was also quite good at running away and throwing away (or just throwing it away and not getting flagged, which led to their field goal).

3. Special Teams/Feelingsball

starts at 53:16

Breaking down the ten(?) deadly sins of the end of the first half, just one of which wasn’t on Michigan. IU fake punt was at the dumbest part of the field AND tried to edge Devin Bush (how did that work out for you?). Moody, Moody, Moody, Moody, Moody, Moody.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:14:31

Iowa-Illinois: blerp. Wisconsin-Purdue: low-scoring affair becomes a humdinger in the 4th and overtime. Purdue is an in-season disappointment. Penn State-Rutgers was a Rutger but PSU is back to the salt mines—Frames Janklin is punting from the Rutgers 37 on 4th and 4. State loses 9-6 to Nebraska on a Sparty No! All the sharps were betting Minnesota over Northwestern, who’s warming up shirtless and channeling the MSU DISRESPEKT. And the Maryland-OSU gongshow. McFarland got hurt or else he gets the Biakabutuka. Haskins has to run the things they saved for Michigan. Jamie’s done with Tom Allen. Ohio State can’t fix this defense in a week. Long discussion on The Game. Get this one or you’ll never get anything. OSU won all six of their coin flip games this year. Football Armageddon II: Let’s go kill ‘em!